29 March - County Gate crashes
This is the 22nd blog about County Gate, a road
I have never been to see but it is some sort of short-cut on to the A20. There
have been protests about the traffic problems that it causes since at least 2007.
Photo 2 shows a bunch of Labour Party Councillors and supporters
outside the old Civic Offices in June of 2011. The lady in yellow lived on
County Gate.
Bexley Council has put forward a multitude of solutions over the years and one by
one they have been thwarted by Greenwich Council whose boundary lies nearby.
Their residents are not affected by the traffic and presumably like having a shortcut to the A20.
Councillor Craske memorably
provoked a News Shopper headline (see image below) accusing a Greenwich
Councillor who he said lived in the next road of selfishly blocking his proposals.
Greenwich Council refuted the claim.
By 2016 Bexley Council faced an additional problem. Sadiq Khan became Mayor of
London, a man unafraid of showimg his preference for Labour controlled Councils.
And so Greenwich Council acquired an ally in its dispute with Bexley; but it
didn’t stop Bexley trying.
Councillor Lisa Moore
tried her luck with a petition in 2021 but it got her nowhere thanks once
again to the Royal Borough’s objections. More recently Bexley Council completely
caved in to their demands. @tonyofsidcup, maybe unaware of the long history,
asked why, and Andrew Bashford, Head of Highways, kindly provided him with a lengthy explanation.
He reveals that Bexley had agreed that
Greenwich could study the problem and make a proposal but after two years of delay they had done next to nothing.
Bexley reacted by putting forward a simpler watered down, compared to earlier
proposals, solution to which they felt Greenwich could not reasonably object; but they did.
Bexley then considered, bearing in mind the history of such things, that Greenwich would inevitably refer the
dispute to the left leaning
Mayor and there was little or no chance of prevailing over an uncooperative neighbour.
The whole idea is now shelved.
Being of small mind I find it amusing that so many Labour supporters, some
directly affected, have been given a kicking by Sadiq Khan.
News Shopper headline from way back in the days when they reported Council meetings.
